Lost in the Fight

Chapter 35 - Should'ves

*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

*Author's Notes: Here's the latest chapter of 'Lost in the Fight' and this one's a bit of a roller coaster ride.  It contains angst, humor, yelling, cuteness, suspense, Donnie drama, Mikey antics, Raph rage, Leo anxiety – lots of good stuff. ;) 

Thank you so much to all of my readers and followers. You are all wonderful. <3

I hope you enjoy the chapter . . . ;) CJ

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Chapter 35 - Should'ves

"Donnie! You better have one shelluva good excuse for not answering us!" The words cut through the air like the sharpest of knives as a very angry Hamato Raphael vaulted over a turnstile and leapt down the set of stairs that immediately followed. He then veered left and headed straight for his genius brother's laboratory. His other two brothers were right on his tail, just as panicked as he was, but not quite as vocal about it.

Raph slid the lab doors open and stormed inside, not even bothering to knock before entering. He was mad enough to skip such formalities. Besides, he figured his yelling was adequate notification that he was approaching.

Donnie's three brothers were understandably tense.

All the way back to the lair, they had passed the time by randomly pointing out possible explanations for why Donnie hadn't answered them, including such gems as:

"His phone must not be working."

"He's probably so caught up with one of his projects, he just didn't hear our texts or calls."

"It could be that he's taking a long, hot bubble bath."

"Or he could've invented something that locked him in the garage again."

"Maybe he just went to bed."

Then, there was Mikey's personal favorite contribution that he had made to the list . . .

"OOOOOOH! Maybe he's watching MTV and learning how to 'Dougie!'"

That one had earned him a slap to the back of the head.

Of course, all of them had just been spouting off guesses because they didn't want to actually admit that they were scared to death that something bad had happened to their genius brother. It wasn't like Donnie to not answer his T-phone. They all knew what had happened the last time he hadn't responded to their calls . . .

"Donnie! Where the heck are you?" What little was left of Raph's patience had just run dry and his now overwhelming sense of rage was impairing his capabilities of thinking straight. He needed to hit something and he needed to hit it hard. He stomped around the laboratory, hunting for both his brother and something to slam his fists into.

"I'll go check the rest of the lair." The unusual somberness of Mikey's tone revealed that something was weighing heavily on his mind. Without waiting for his older brothers' authorization, he turned and hurried out of the lab to search the remainder of their home for his brainy big brother, calling out his name as he went.

"Donnie! Answer me right now or I'm gonna give you a serious beat down!"

Leonardo rolled his eyes, thinking how wholly inappropriate Raph threatening to beat down Donnie was after all that had happened. What if their genius brother was lying somewhere hurt? Just the thought made the oldest turtle feel like throwing up, but then again, Leo's stomach had been queasy ever since Mikey had told him that their wounded brother wasn't answering his texts.